INDIANAPOLIS — Video of a fight inside a north side Indianapolis Walmart is going viral.
What should have been a normal shopping day for residents turned into an all-out brawl.
“I was standing in the checkout line and that’s kind of where everything started to unfold," Kind Butler, who witnessed the incident, told WRTV.
Once it started, he immediately picked up his phone and started recording.
The clip runs for more than four minutes and starts with the employee surrounded by a group of women, who are all kicking, punching and beating her.
"There was a lot of commotion at first," Butler explained. "But once I saw that it was almost like a family feud type of situation, two girls, I calmed down, and that's when I was able to bring out my camera and record the whole thing."
Butler told WRTV the altercation was the result of an alleged sexual assault. He said the Walmart employee was confronted by the group of people who believed she knew where that person was.
In the video, you see several people watching the incident unfold, as well as recording it.
“When we’re in a situation like that, we feel so uncomfortable, we don’t know what to do," Amanda Egan said. "‘All of a sudden I don’t know what’s expected, and so our phones are one of those devices that we especially reach for.”
Egan is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Chair of the Department of Psychological Science & Counseling at Marian University. WRTV asked her why the first reaction from many people is to record rather than to help.
“In that situation where they see several individuals all ganging up on one person, they [bystanders] may decide that's gonna be way too costly for me and I'm not even gonna be able to effectively help," Egan explained. "But that's going to create cognitive dissonance in our brain because we want to believe that we're helpful people… so by pulling out and filming with the device, it feels as if we're doing something.”
Butler goes to that Walmart every day. He said this was something he never expected to see there, but once it started, he felt it was necessary for others to see it too.
“Videos are very important now in this day," Butler said. "You need to just see what’s going on.”
Egan, however, remains skeptical.
“I would caution people that even if your instinct is to pull out and film something, really think long and hard about whether or not to share it," she said.
IMPD has a long history at the Walmart on Keystone Avenue. In 2024, police were called to the location around 65 times. Two of those calls were for fights and/or disturbances.
Already this year, police have been called 59 times. Eight of those calls were for disturbances.
We reached out to Walmart for more information on the incident. They told us in a statement:
“The violence that occurred at our store on Friday was unacceptable. We appreciate police for acting quickly.”
No arrests have been made in this case at this time.
